Nanjing Museum History Gallery

The Nanjing Museum is also known as the Southern Museum or Nanbo, and its predecessor was the National Central Museum founded in the twenty-second year of the Republic of China (1933) by Cai Yuanpei and others. It is the earliest established museum in China and the first large-scale comprehensive museum built with national investment. The Nanjing Museum covers an area of more than 130,000 square meters, with a 'one museum, six galleries' layout, namely the History Gallery, Special Exhibition Gallery, Digital Gallery, Art Gallery, Intangible Cultural Heritage Gallery, and Republic of China Gallery. As of 2018, the Nanjing Museum has a collection of 432,768 items (sets), including 371,032 precious cultural relics. The number of precious cultural relics ranks second in China, only after the Palace Museum. The collections range from the Paleolithic Age to the contemporary era; they are both national and regional; they include both court heritage and archaeological finds, as well as a portion sourced from social collections and donations. They are all treasures and fine works from past dynasties and are highly regarded by the academic community both in China and abroad. The museum's collection includes bronzes, jades, ceramics, gold and silverware, bamboo, wood, ivory, and horn objects, lacquerware, silk embroidery, paintings and calligraphy, seals, steles, and statues. Each category of cultural relics forms its own historical series, serving as the most direct witness to the development of thousands of years of Chinese civilization.